The Prince's Regime
by Rikka-tan
Summary: AU-ish. U-17 setting. The middle schoolers were invited to the U-17 selection camp. They met many challenges and many surprises as they struggling to crawled their way to the top. However, their biggest surprise might have come from meeting one 'Echizen Ryoma', and to found themselves drawn to this mysterious enigma.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Prince of Tennis belongs to Takeshi Konomi.

**Summary: **AU-ish. U-17 setting. The middle schoolers were invited to the U-17 selection camp. They met many challenges and many surprises as they struggling to crawled their way to the top. However, their biggest surprise might have come from meeting one 'Echizen Ryoma', and to found themselves drawn to this mysterious enigma.

**Pairings: **… later. I have yet to decide.

**Warning: **Unbeta'd (beware of grammar mistakes and spelling errors). Might be OOC. Will contain BL.

**A/N:** I recommend you to read or watch **New Prince of Tennis** first to further understand this fic of mine.

**NOTE (IMPORTANT): This is in U-17 setting. It followed New Prince of Tennis plot, but absolutely won't be following too close to the canon. I might have tweaked it a bit too much, lol XD**

**1. Ryoma NEVER attends Seigaku. He NEVER meets any of the middle schooler beforehand.**

**2. Because there is no Ryoma in Seigaku, obviously Seigaku didn't exactly won the national, and so Tezuka won't go to pro here.**

**3. Ryoma's tennis skill is strong. As in really **_**really**_** strong.**

* * *

**The Prince's Regime**

**~Rikka~**

**~...~...~...~...~...~...~...~**

_Prologue_

_- Those which destiny had chosen -_

**~...~...~...~...~...~...~...~...~...~...~...~...~**

A dark-haired teen was seen sitting on the edge of a cliff. His right hand lay above the ground, keeping his body's weight in balance. His left hand was holding a racket –a red colored one— firmly. His wrist was flicking up and down as a tennis ball was bouncing in rhythm every time it hit the racket's strings.

A white hat rest on top of his head, framing his hair steadily, kept it from going disarray against the sudden wind which was blowing from below the cliff. The wind caused the yellow ball to swayed abruptly in mid-air and was about to be blown away when the teen calmly extended his racket and caught the ball within the strings. He, then, swiftly knocked it back, letting his right hand to capture the ball.

A pair of golden eyes shone brightly as they stared at the view in front of him, unable to veil its excitement toward what was coming on his way.

* * *

"_50 middle schoolers..!?"_

"_Here in the Japanese high school representatives' selection team…?"_

* * *

"… _Hey, you hear?"_

"_Yeah, what a pain. Do they really expect us to get along with them?"_

"_Well, yeah, there's that. But, I don't think it's that unusual though?"_

"_Right. Of course. We already have one exception here."_

* * *

"_So, this is the U-17 candidate selection camp."_

"_Is this okay… I mean calling middle schoolers like us to this kind of place."_

"_0%..."_

"_Before last year, there was not a single precedent of middle schooler representatives even being considered for the training camp."_

"_As it stands now, of the 270 to 280 U-17 selection candidates, only 50 of them are middle schoolers. The probability that there's a catch to this is… 100%."_

* * *

"_Even though all you high schoolers do not approve of this, I have heard of this recent year's middle school tennis level has risen quite high."_

"_We must work together to cultivate our talents. As such, let us aim higher as the Japanese U-17 representatives!"_

"_However, I have a message from the coach: '300 members seem a bit too big. Drop 250 balls and those who cannot obtain one must return home immediately'."_

* * *

"_Coach Kurobe, out of the 296 people, the 50 middle schoolers passed. And almost half of the players don't have a ball, and those are… all high schoolers."_

"_Doesn't matter. Have all the failed one leave."_

'_Interesting. All those middle schoolers weren't disappointing at all. Maybe you really won't get bored this time._

* * *

"_Here in the U-17 selection camp, one by one, everyone is separated by their strengths from court 1 all the way to court 16. Incidentally, the lower the number of the court, the stronger the player."_

"_In this camp, every day before practice, the coach likes to post all the groups into 'shuffle matches'. If you plan to get ahead then you have to win in these matches."_

"_The rule here is to beat your opponent and get him demoted."_

* * *

"_I'm Irie Kanata from court 3."_

"_Court 5, Oni Juujiro."_

"_Tokugawa Kazuya, court 1."_

"_It would seem there are greater monsters here than we initially thought."_

* * *

"_There really are other middle schoolers here."_

"_You seem to have a lot of fun, irie."_

"_Isn't this interesting? I wonder if our little prince would be gleeful."_

"_I can't imagine him being gleeful at all."_

"_That was mean, Tokugawa. But, that really was the reason why they are here, right?"_

"…"

* * *

"_Everyone, please pair up into groups of two."_

"_You guys' done? Well then, let's start the single matches. Those who lose will be eliminated from the program."_

"_That's right. You will play against the partner you just teamed up with."_

* * *

"_Game won by Oshitari 7-0!"_

"_Shit, shit, you bastard Yuushi! Closing off your heart like that!_

"_Forgive me, Gakuto. This was too bad."_

* * *

"_Game won by Yagyuu, 8-6!"_

"_I don't believe it. Seems you're really quite the trickster yourself."_

"_That's harmful to my reputation. We're equal in this regard."_

* * *

"_Game! Won by Kikumaru, 7-4!"_

"_Oishi, leave your racquet behind. If I have it, then you definitely won't be left out of the U-17 selection."_

"_Take care of it, Eiji!"_

"_Of course!"_

* * *

"_A second fluke shot… You're that happy about winning by chance? Of course you would be, Kamio…"_

"_Shut up."_

"_Game won by Kamio, 7-5."_

* * *

"_Game won by Yukimura, 7-1!"_

"_Sana…"_

* * *

"_Game won by Fuji, 7-0."_

"_You've gotten stronger, Yuuta."_

"_Thank you for not holding back, aniki."_

* * *

"_Game won by Ohtori, 9-7!"_

"_Don't be too excited about winning, Choutarou! There are all sorts of guys waiting out there for you in this camp. However, have confidence in yourself since you're the man who defeated me! Farewell, Choutarou!"_

"_I will! Thank you very much, Shishido-san!"_

* * *

"_Game won by Tezuka, 7-0!"_

"_That was the best match I've played with you, Kaidoh."_

"_Yes, I will… definitely."_

"_I'm counting on you."_

* * *

"_Game won by Atobe, 47-45!"_

"_Go find your own Hyoutei chant."_

"_Yes!"_

* * *

"_Game won by Shiraishi, 7-3!"_

"_Sorry Kenya, the winner has to win."_

"_Even more than the speedster of Naniwa, bible tennis is higher than it is what you're basically saying."_

* * *

"_6-0, Yanagi!"_

"_Referee, I, Yanagi Renji, forfeit the match."_

"_Please tell me you are joking… please wait! What the hell is this!? I still haven't finished with you! I'm just getting started!"_

"_That's right. You're just getting started. You will be the one to remain in this camp. Go and climb even higher, Akaya."_

* * *

"_3-0, Sengoku!"_

"_Give it up already, Omoshiro-kun."_

"_Don't be kidding! I'm—"_

* * *

"_Well? Do you think you'll get any good data?"_

"_Oh, I think I'll manage. Well then, time to start analysis. I need to make sure they will at least become a decent playmate for the little prince."_

"_Aren't you going to watch the rest of the matches?"_

"_I'll watch from the monitor room. Kurobe's been yelling at me to report to him tomorrow. Besides, we need to have Kurobe calling our little one back, though I'm sure he'd done that already."_

* * *

"_Middle schoolers who have lost the singles matches, please return to the dorms to collect your belongings. Your bus home is waiting for you in the parking lot. This will be all. Good work."_

* * *

"_Hey, all of you! Are you really not regretting this!? shouldn't we all be fucking pissed about all of this!?"_

"_Stop whinning!"_

"_We lost to our partners fair and square."_

"_If you are regretting it, then go home and train until you're better."_

* * *

"_Where are we?"_

"_Coach Saitoh!"_

"_I have been waiting for you."_

"_From here on out, my real job begins."_

"_What are you talking about? Didn't we drop out already?"_

"_Yes, you did. However, if you do not wish to widen the gap between yourselves and the winners… why don't you try climbing this mountain?_

"_Are you saying we have a chance to return to the camp if we climb this mountain?"_

"_I wonder."_

* * *

"_What are you trying to say?"_

"_You guys were weaker than the winner. That's why you lost. And the winners have already begun training with a special regimen."_

"_The gap between you will only become larger. Whether you decide to try to close that gap or not, is up to you."_

* * *

"_Don't you want to become stronger?"_

* * *

An eagle latched itself on the teen's shoulder, pecking his hat then taking it off of his head. Dark locks with emerald tinge were revealed underneath. The teen turned his head, settling his golden orbs on the eagle's equally golden ones.

"Oi, brat! What are you doing?" an old man shouted from behind. Whistling of water could be heard. It was coming from the wooden gourd he was carrying. "Come on! They are coming!"

The dark-haired teen pulled himself up. Placing the tennis ball inside his pocket, he moved the racket to his right hand then raised his left hand up, toward the predator bird. He tugged his hat back from the eagle, which was releasing it without any resistance. The bird which had lost his toy, flapped his wings and decided to fly ahead of the teen, letting him put his cap back to its supposed place; and walked after the old man.

_Welcome to hell_.

* * *

**_"To stop or to keep moving forward is for you to decide."_**

* * *

**Obviously it will be much better if you read or watch New prince of tennis first. All the italic is scenes that happened in-between before and after the winner/loser selection. I only put tits and bits of those scenes here, because I'm not going to repeat everything here.**

**Also, if you had read the canon, then you will be able to recognize which part I'd changed a bit and which part I added in, that made this different from the original. The next chapter will already in the part where the loser team start their training.**

I have a confession to make. I kinda naming the title... err... randomly? Honestly, it just sort of popped up in my mind suddenly and it absolutely has nothing to do with the plot itself. Was it bad? Any suggestion?

I'm really sorry for any grammar mistakes I might had made. I'm embarrassed already because of it. Maybe, you could please help me point out any of the mistakes?


	2. Chapter 2

**Pairings: **… err, I still can't choose one. I love too many.

**Warning: **Soft BL. Unbeta'ed (beware of grammar mistakes and spelling errors). Might be OOC. Some swearing and cursing.

**Announcement: **I change the title, courtesy to AngelDono for the suggestion. Now, the title makes much more sense than the (silly) previous one. Also, special thanks again for AngelDono for fixing all my grammar mistakes in the previous chapter.

**A/N:** Thank you very much for all the reviews, favs, and follows. All of you who had gave me reviews, thanks a lot for sparing me your time to write one. I really love and appreciate each of them :)

About the pairing… aside for the obvious canon ones, I have yet to decide who I'm going to pair Ryoma with. I might make a poll for it later.

**Annoucement 2: BIG thanks for both AngelDono and Anotherwriterintheworld for pointed out all of my grammar mistakes (that were awfully lots). I fixed them already :)**

* * *

_Guest reply:_

_Karen: Thank you. Yes, though it make things harder, since I need to forge their relationship all over again QAQ_

* * *

**The Prince's Regime**

**~Rikka~**

**~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~**

_Chapter 1_

_- Those who are destined to meet -_

**~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~**

_Pant. Pant._

"I'm definitely gonna keep crawling upwards!" the short-haired teen wearing a cap shouted, rather to motivated himself than for the others to listen.

The entire loser team members were found climbing the mountain. Despite their initial dislike for coach Saitoh's unclear answer, they seemed to decide to do it, solely for the sake of becoming stronger. They hated the fact that they were getting left behind by their partners, so if there was even the smallest chance of returning to the camp, they apparently would do absolutely anything.

"I'm going on ahead!" Mukahi claimed cheerily, as he was bouncing from one slope to another.

"Like hell I'm letting you get ahead of me!" the fattest teen of Higa, Tanishi Kei, moved in an agile way that was unexpected from someone who was obviously overweight. He climbed, or more accurately, jumped –as if there was no gravity—following the bob-style haired teen.

The after-effect of their rather reckless climbing caused pebbles of rocks to fell downwards, hitting Shishido who was directly below them. "Watch where you're going! Stop dropping rocks! This isn't a race!"

Another Higa student, Kai, snickered. "If you don't want to be hit, you should try avoiding them."

–which resulted in making Shishido even more agitated.

Unbeknownst to them, there was a pair of eyes watching them intently –like an eagle eyeing its prey— from a distance.

A loud crashing sound broke the banter that was on. All eyes immediately glanced to the direction of the source. Momoshiro had _collapsed _to the ground, grasping his wounded right hand with his left and breathing harshly, seemingly in a state of utter pain. His injury from the match earlier was most likely not healed yet.

The mother hen of Seigaku ran toward his junior in panic. "Momo! Are you okay?"

Oishi supported most of Momoshiro's weight and helped him to sit up. "Momo, don't push yourself too hard. You should take a break."

Panting heavily, the trickster of Seigaku still stubbornly refused to hold his teammates back. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me, please go on ahead."

Not worrying about someone, even for the smallest or most insignificant cause, was never the nature of one Oishi Shuuichirou. "But—"

"Please!" Momoshiro cut him off. He sounded so desperate. "I don't want to hold you back."

Once again, he stood up and tried to climb the mountain with that injured hand of his, leaving Oishi to eye him in concern.

Intense pain was not cut out for climbing, obviously, and seemed to have immensely drained his energy. Momoshiro tumbled back to the ground.

He clutched his right hand, eyes narrowing, feeling upset.

"If you are going to turn tail and run over such minor injury, then just go home and wallow in regret," Kaidoh stated bluntly.

Hearing his lifelong rival's words proved to be very effective, as it had successfully fueled the fighting spirit inside of him. "What did you say!? Bring it on, you bastard!"

Kaidoh ended up in a headlock with Momoshiro, having the spiky haired teen grab his jersey collar. "Just try it, you fucking coward!"

Oishi who was poorly standing in-between, became panicked at the turn of events. "Hey, stop it, you two!"

No one had noticed the sound of footsteps coming near them.

"Get on," the bandana teen said suddenly. Kneeling on the ground, he turned his back towards Momoshiro and glanced at him as a gesture to hop on his back.

This gentle act surprised everyone who was watching them, but most specifically the injured teen.

"We will continue this again once we reach the top."

"Mamushi, you…"

"I'm telling you to climb on my back. Hurry up, moron!"

"What are you talking about!? I'd rather drop out than ride on your back and letting you carry me like a child—!" pride appeared to have hindered his logic.

"Don't you want to rise back up?" another voice calmly chirped in.

Both of them –if not everyone— turned toward the voice's source. There, stood a dark-haired teen that appeared to be younger than them all. The teen wore a black sport jacket with hoodie and red strips along the sleeves, with a tennis bag hanging on his shoulder. It's strange how no one seemed to notice him until now, especially when he stood out like a sore thumb among all the school jersey wearers. The white cap was shielding his face from being seen clearly.

_Has he been here all this time?_

He kept his stare level at Momoshiro, looking straight at him and continued, "Are you just going to stop here?"

The words sunk in. He then recalled his match against Oni Juujiro that resulted in his injury. The last words he had told momoshiro. _Crawl on up, Momoshiro Takeshi!_

It was frustrating. It felt like he was just splashed by cold water right to his face. He was inferior against the high-schooler –the upper court residence— the difference between skills was so evidently huge, and that's the truth.

"That's right, I…" Momoshiro shook his head and closed his eyes. When he opened them, determination was plastered in them. He walked toward Kaidoh, bended down and let his body fall on top of Kaidoh's back, securing both of his arms on his rival's neck.

"I'm sorry. If you can't carry me anymore, just let me go anytime."

Kaidoh scoffed. "Of course. I don't want to be dragged down with you." He held Momoshiro firmly, then stood up.

The stranger teen was watching them, amused.

"Oh wait!" the trickster of Seigaku seemed to just remember something. "My bag—"

The tennis bag on the ground had almost been left forgotten. He had dropped his bag earlier when he crawled on Kaidoh's back.

An arm reached out for his tennis bag. Surprisingly, it was the unknown teen that picked his bag up and placed it on his left shoulder. He then wordlessly returned to climb the mountain again.

"Oh… uh…" Momoshiro mumbled incoherently, stared at the teen, dumbfounded. "Thanks…" he fidgeted on Kaidoh's back. "Err, who..."

"Later," the dark-haired teen replied simply, leaving behind many unanswered questions among them all.

* * *

_Thwack. Thwack._

The sound of balls hitting were heard. It came from the mountain summit. A lot of black shirt wearing fellows were seen standing on it. Half of them were playing on the tennis court which was unexpectedly (or expectedly) there, while the other half was making a circle surrounding the court.

Harsh panting. Heavy breathing.

All of them appeared to be in no state of playing anymore, though no one was stopping even for a moment.

The eagles were flying care-freely above them, as though mocking them for being incredulously stupid.

A tanned skin man fell from exhaustion, a sign from fatigue which had overwhelmed his body.

Still, the world was not as forgiving.

He was taken aback as large amounts of water had been dumped exactly on his face, immediately waking him up.

A leg was stepping right on his head. "Stand up, you piece of shit!"

"If you're still here then show some fucking guts, you idiots! What the hell are you standing around for!? *hic* pick up the fucking balls! *hic* Akhhh! *hic* There's no more time. 5 seconds left!" A beard man wearing clothes resembling a rag shouted loudly. It still sounded commanding even though he seemed to be quite drunk.

He started counting. "—2…!"

The old man kicked a wooden case, which contained the tennis balls, hard. "You are a second late, you little pieces of shit!" and successfully sent all the yellow balls off of the cliff.

"Go and bring back all the balls that dropped," he stated nonchalantly. "Hurry the hell up!"

All the black-clad men quickly scattered around at the barking, moving their feet to pick the balls up before angering their drunken coach again.

The rag-wearing old man sat on top of a chopped tree. Crossing his leg and drank the liquor in his gourd again. "All these pieces of shit…"

He glanced at the eagle –the one which had a scar right above its eyes— landing on his muscular arms. He stared at its golden eyes, as if it held an answer. "Right. Where has your brat ran off to anyway?"

* * *

"At last." A hand tightly grasped the surface of the mountain peak. Kaidoh used the last of his strength to pull himself up. He landed on top of the ground, panting harshly.

The one who came up next was Momoshiro, who had apparently been switched into being carried by the emperor of Rikkaidai, Sanada, halfway through the climbing.

Not long after, the rest of the loser team appeared and quickly wasted on the ground. All of them seemed to have exhausted themselves badly, without any sign of recovering soon.

The smallest of them —the mysterious stranger— put momoshiro's tennis bag down. Looks like he was the only one that still had some energy left —or more precisely, he didn't appear to be as tired as they were, proven by the small amounts of sweat dripping down his body.

He casually shrugged his own bag into a more comfortable position, grasping the racket in his right hand firmly, and then took a step forward, about to leave them behind.

Momoshiro took notice of it and quickly shouted. "Wait!"

The teen stilled, before turning around.

"Thanks for helping," the Seigaku sophomore said, lifting himself up. Immediately, all of the others eagerly switched their attention to the unknown teen.

"Also for that encouragement earlier," Momoshiro scratched his neck sheepishly. He took a step forward toward the dark-haired teen.

The capped teen kept quiet, silently urging the taller teen to continue.

"I'm Momoshiro Takeshi," He said, introducing himself. "What is yours?"

The teen, who was silent for a moment, had only been staring at Momoshiro as though contemplating whether to answer or not.

Seeming to have come to a decision, he slowly lifted his left hand up toward the white hat, then taking it off from crowning his hair.

Strands of black hair emerged from beneath the cap. The bright sun illuminated the emerald tinge on his dark locks dazzlingly, as they feather softly on the teen's face. Now that the hat was off, they could see clearly a pair of cat-like eyes with striking golden orbs, which had been sheltered by his long dark eyelashes. Slightly flushed cheeks caused by the heat and full lips perfected his already well-formed face.

The teen lowered the cap in his hand slightly. His lips parted slowly, forming two words.

"Echizen Ryoma."

* * *

"Echizen Ryoma."

The tall bespectacled teen mumbled as he flashed through his note-book at the speed of light as soon as the dark-haired teen had disappeared from their sight. "No data… it can't be…" he slouched down, shocked beyond words, as if the world was ending.

A hand tapped on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Sadaharu. I don't have any data about him either," Yanagi Renji, another data master from Rikkaidai said reassuringly.

"But, the possibility of me missing such a talented player is 0, 0001%," Inui stated in disbelief.

_A talented player indeed, _Yanagi nodded in approval. They all had seen firsthand the teen's skill even if it was just a bit, when they were climbing earlier. While the others had panicked when they saw excessive amounts of tennis balls falling straight towards them from the peak, causing more than a few slopes to crumble, the dark-haired teen; now they knew as Echizen Ryoma, had lazily taken a racket out of his bag and smacked all the balls –that were raining down towards him— back to the top, saving a lot of them who were hanging below him.

"You're right. I'm also interested in finding out where he has hidden all this time."

"You guys sound really creepy right now," Momoshiro whispered offhandedly in the back.

"And combined with the fact that he has such—"

"—good looks' is what you are trying to say," Yanagi stated, finishing Inui's sentence.

Inui glasses glinted hideously. "It's outrageous!"

"Especially with that rare hair color and those enchanting golden eyes," Yanagi said, stroking his chin knowingly.

"He appears to be the same age as Tooyama. His height is approximately 154 cm and 50kg," Inui mumbled as he wrote it down in his note-book.

"How the hell do you know about things like that too?" Oshitari Kenya shrieked horrified.

"—also, he has a very interesting bone structure, though it still hasn't finished developing," Inui continued, obviously ignoring the protest from behind.

"Yes, once he hits his growth spurt and loses all of his baby fat, given a few years, he will definitely grow into one exceptional beauty." Yanagi concluded in agreement.

"Inui-senpai, Yanagi-san, stop checking out a fellow male!" Momoshiro shouted in horror.

Inui tugged his glasses. "What are you fretting about, Momoshiro? Are you saying I'm wrong?"

"Well, no… I—," he stammered.

"You do agree he has good looks?"

"Well, that… I mean..." Eyes looking everywhere. "... Yeah…" he conceded.

"But not in_ that way!" _Momoshiro added, albeit left unheard as Inui was apparently ignoring him in favor of Kaidoh. "What do you think, Kaidoh?"

Kaidoh quickly averted his eyes, avoided looking at Inui. "Fsshhhh," was the only reply.

The other data master glanced towards Sanada. "Genichirou?"

Sanada slammed his mouth shut tight.

* * *

The person in question was walking nonchalantly, oblivious towards all the things he had caused. His eyes shone excitedly for some reason and his lips tugged upwards into a smirk.

"Brat."

An eagle flew towards Ryoma. He stretched his arm out and let the eagle perched on it.

"You should have taken that eagle with you. He was disturbing my drinking!" the old man complained as he walked, approaching Ryoma.

"Che. You shouldn't be drinking in the middle of the day," the teen countered back curtly.

He gulped the liquor down. "I do what I want." Eyeing Ryoma critically, he asked, "How were they?"

Ryoma kept himself busy watching his eagle, feigning ignorance. He did know what the old man had meant.

"Whatever," he shrugged then strode past the teen. "Having fun?" he asked again, albeit not expecting an answer.

Ryoma waited until the old coach was gone before opening his mouth. "Mada mada dane."

* * *

"What have you all been talking about!? I'm tired of waiting!" a loud low voice suddenly barked at them, breaking them from their discussion immediately.

They cast their sight to the source and found an old man around his fifties or maybe sixties, with attire similar to a hermit. He had long dark hair, a beard and was very hairy throughout his body. He carried with him a gourd and stank, smelled very much like *sake.

As they scrutinized the man, they had also noticed what was behind him. Wide eyes and mouths gawking, as they entered what was happening around their surroundings. They had been too focused on the unknown teen before, to notice the dreadful sight right before them.

"You're late, you fucking brats!" the old man shouted again.

All the middle schoolers were speechless, taken aback by the view in front of them.

"What is going on here?" Momoshiro muttered in disbelief.

Oishi swept through the entire scene. "What is this?"

Ignoring the shocked middle schoolers, the beard man yelled, "I'm Mifune. I'll be coaching you here! Along with the other trash, I'm going to train you!"

He glared to all of them. "Welcome to hell, losers."

_The senior high dropouts were lying, completely unmoving, on the ground._

* * *

_Meanwhile, in__ court 1._

Irie Kanata was humming softly as he watched the match between Tokugawa Kazuya and Oni Juujirou.

They were playing a one set match, apparently hitting 10 balls, all at once with a single stroke. 15 minutes had passed, but no one seemed to have scored even one point yet. They were in still.

"Hey, they should be doing mountain training now, right?"

Oni slammed the ten balls past the net hard. "What are you trying to say, irie?"

The honey-colored haired teen smiled. "Hmm, Nothing. I was just wondering. I have never been there after all." He eyed Tokugawa knowingly.

Tokugawa was just silently returning the balls fluidly.

"I'm wondering if they have met him yet," he continued.

Crossing his arms, irie's glasses glinted in amusement. "So, it's starting."

* * *

"_**An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance.**_

_**The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break." **_

[An ancient Chinese belief]

* * *

_***Sake: Japanese liquor**_

I'm thinking whether to make the following chapters longer...

I just realized that all the *hot* guys, except for Sanada, Niou, and maybe Kenya, also Hiyoshi and Zaizen (I actually like Hiyoshi and Zaizen quite a lot, of course Kin-chan too) are in the winner team.

I seem to developed thing pretty slowly. Forgot to mention that there will be a LOT of tennis, while the romance will progressing rather slowly.

As always, please tell me if I made any grammar mistakes. Thought, suggestion, constructive criticism are always welcome. Thank you.


	3. Chapter 3

**Pairings: **…hahaha… I'm still torn D:

**Warning: **Might be OOC. Some swearing and cursing.

**A/N: **Thank you for all the reviews, follows and favs! Especially for all of you who gave me reviews, I'm overwhelmed with happiness when I read them all, since it made me knew that someone did love my story (though, I'm still wondering what made you like this fic, lol). Thank you so much! :)

**Beta'ed by the lovely AngelDono. Thank you darling~ ;D**

* * *

_Guest reply:_

_Guest 1: Thank you! Here is an update~_

_Guest 2 & 3 (who asked for sensual): Let just see how the story goes, because I haven't decided the exact pairing for Ryoma at all. For now, there will be only hints and hints~ Nothing too serious though._

_Anonymous: haha, okay~ here is the awaited update ;)_

_Kariza2013: Did you disabled your PM feature? I'll just reply to you here then. I will! Here is the new chapter~_

* * *

**The Prince's Regime**

**~Rikka~**

**~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~**

_Chapter 2_

_- Those who want to become stronger -_

**~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~**

The black-clad men started to stand up one by one. They were covered in dirt and looked beat up, not to mention lifeless. Their facial expression darkened, looked dejected, and was surrounded by a gloomy aura all around them. The scene felt so much like a horror movie, one where zombies rise from the dead, albeit they weren't dead… yet.

The high schoolers walked in rhythm, approaching the still-shocked middle schoolers. Their arms hung straight down, bodies crouched low, with heads also facing downward.

"Wh—what's wrong with them?" Kenya asked as his face started turning pale, ready to bolt away at any moment.

Momoshiro's mouth gaped open and close like a goldfish. "We really stepped in at the wrong time."

Only then, the high schoolers noticed who was exactly standing right before them. "You guys are—?!"

Seemed like even the senior high dropouts were surprised by the middle schoolers' arrival.

Still upset from having been beaten by them earlier, which resulted in being sent to this place, one of the senior high dropouts growled in vexation. "What are you middle schoolers doing here?!"

"What are you guys doing up here yourselves?" Kintarou countered.

"Shut up! It's got nothing to do with you!" the tan blond-haired man, named Sasabe Junichi, replied. "Do you want me to beat you up?"

"What did you say?" Kaidoh, never one to stay still especially when being threatened, walked up. "If you're going to do it, then do it!"

"Fine by me!"

The crows, that were silently watching them from the trees up till now, suddenly flew away and broke them from arguing by their flapping wings and warning vocalization.

It made them realized, again, that they were not the only ones up there. Their coach, Mifune Nyudo, stared at them displeased.

"Enough talking!" He barked. Growling, he reached out for his gourd. "I can't believe I have to take care of you trash. What a pain in the ass." Mifune drank his liquor.

'_Our coach is a drunk?'_ Shishido thought, not liking the fact at all.

"Listen up! My orders are absolute up here. Make sure to do anything I tell you, or else I'll throw you off the cliff!" Their drunken coach shouted commandingly.

"You heard him." Sasabe snickered.

"Well, I'm not too sure you middle schoolers will make it through the training up here, though," he continued in mocking tone. "I won't blame you if you run away."

All the other senior high dropouts lightly laughed in approval.

The middle schoolers glared at them intensely.

"Hurry up and move, trash!" Mifune cut in, obviously ignoring the hostile atmosphere between the two. "Training starts soon."

Consciously, he wandered his sight to Ryoma, who was watching them from a distance.

* * *

The middle schoolers changed from their school jerseys into plain white t-shirts, as was instructed by their new coach. Their jerseys were now left hanging on the wooden fence in front of a wooden house, which was located behind Mifune.

"Got changed? Plain t-shirts are enough for you trash."

"Hey! Who are you to call us trash?!" Fuji Yuuta shouted, feeling so fed-up from being called trash continuously.

"Trash is trash," Mifune replied coldly.

"What?" Momoshiro looked more than ready to brawl.

Ignoring their fury, the drunken coach continued, "or, would you prefer I call you losers?"

That… successfully shut them up. They couldn't rebuke that statement, couldn't really shout '**_No_**', because it was one painful truth they had to admit. Even when they felt terrifyingly frustrated, vivaciously so, it was indeed true. They were _losers_.

Mifune threw shovels to the ground. "Alright, to start with, dig a hole. A deep one."

'_Holes?_' Confusion swelled up in all of them.

"I'll be back in an hour," he simply said, then walked away, taking the high schoolers with him.

"Well, what are we supposed to do?"

"Guess we'll just do it?" Kenya answered in an unsure tone. "Or else, he'll throw us off a cliff."

And that sealed their fate.

* * *

They were digging holes under the bright sun. Hours had passed, though no one seemed to realize as they dug one hole to another. They were all covered in dirt; endless sweat had soaked every part of their bodies.

"Alright, stop."

Mifune stood right behind them –when the hell did he come back— without any of them noticing, taking them by surprise.

He gulped down his liquor then commanded, "Put the shovels away."

"Y—yes!" They all shouted in unison, then quickly scattered to put the shovels back in the storage room.

"That drunken old man, I wondered how he was going to train us, but he just makes us dig holes?" Shishido complained after they finished putting the shovels away and had now gathered together, creating a circle, and stood right in front of the storage room.

"There are plenty of better things we could be doing," Yanagi stated. "Why is he making us dig holes?"

Inui who was standing beside Yanagi thought the same thing.

"Let's head back for now."

When they returned, they found their coach nonchalantly taking a pee right in the holes they dug.

"Okay, fill them up," Mifune, realizing they had come back, said.

Not believing the scene before them, they were all dumbfounded and upset at the same time.

"You mean those holes… were just for him to take a piss?" Kaidoh muttered in disbelief.

"Quit bitching and fill the holes back in!" Mifune ordered. "Move it! Where are your shovels?!"

They quickly ran back to the storage room.

"Even though we just put them away."

"Damn it!"

They filled the holes back after retrieving the shovels. The old man was now lying on a big stone, watching them while drinking at the same time.

Which felt like a long few minutes, the holes were finally filled back again.

"Did you fill them completely, trash?"

Momoshiro sighed, wiping the sweat on his forehead. He caught something on the corner of his eyes. "Hey, our jerseys are missing."

Their jerseys were gone, completely vanished from where they were left before. The fence was now bare, without anything covering it up.

"I thought we left them over there," Kawamura added in confusion.

"They're right there." Their coach piped in, he cast his eyes downwards. "Under your feet."

"Our feet?"

"You don't mean…"

Realizing what he had meant, they all quickly looked at the ground below them.

"Seriously?"

There was a laughing sound heard suddenly.

"That's great." The senior high appeared.

"Your precious little jerseys aren't worth anything up here," Sasabe smirked mockingly.

"What did you say?!"

"I've had enough of you!" Kaidoh was beyond pissed.

"Stop it, Kaidoh." Kawamura tried to calm his junior down.

"But, Kawamura-senpai, they—"

"Kaidoh!" Sanada shouted. "Don't forget our goal."

The newly appointed Seigaku captain complied unwillingly, leaving him to shake in rage.

* * *

The middle schoolers were ordered to climb down and up the mountain again, in the task to bring water, while the senior high dropouts were playing tennis on the court. They panted heavily and felt vexed having to carry the wooden basket filled with water throughout the climbing. Especially when the said water was used for the sake of making the high schoolers regain their energy. It pissed them off, seeing their hard work to be used, not even for themselves, but instead for the person they were having dispute with.

They also had been commanded to do tree training; meaning they were being hang upside down while holding a racket. At the same time, countless balls were hit towards them and they must not let even one ball fall to the ground.

Another training was tricycle riding. They had to ride small sized tricycles up the hill, which was difficult since the vehicle's size was obviously not meant for their builds.

After finishing all their training, the middle schoolers were found sprawled on the ground, panting harshly. As expected, the training had really drained their energy.

"I'm so hungry," Seigaku's trickster grumbled.

"Now that I remember, we haven't had breakfast yet."

"This is getting stupid," Kenya complained. "Is that drunk really one of the coaches?"

"Speaking of which, I wonder what they're doing right now," Shishido said bitterly.

"They?"

Shishido sat up. "The winners, of course."

"Damn it. While we're dealing with this nonsense, they're…"

The same thought flashed through their minds. The image of the winners' team having the joy of their lives, being served with the best; the best treatment, the best facilities, and the best food.

Ultimately, the thought made them feel envious even more.

"I can't take this anymore!" Momoshiro groaned.

"How long are you guys gonna take a break?"

The high schoolers stood before them.

"Hey, someone get some water," one of them said, throwing a basket to the ground. "Make it quick, kids," he added mockingly, then walked away.

Sanada's eyes narrowed dangerously. Not only Sanada, but the rest of the middle schoolers also clearly looked beyond pissed.

Unbeknownst of them, their drunken coach stood few meters behind them shielded by a tree, observing them silently.

"You're not going to do anything?" he asked the teen who was standing a few steps behind him, after taking a sip from his gourd.

The capped teen simply shrugged, leaning against a tree nonchalantly, and stared back at the old man without saying a word.

"They might give up at this rate," Mifune continued.

They kept their gazes to each other for a moment, before the dark-haired teen tugged his cap down slightly. "If they stop just because of this, then they don't mean that much."

The hermit-clad man observed him thoroughly, before the tip of his lip rose upwards. "You have faith in them," he stated as matter-of-fact.

The teen was only silent, which already indirectly signified that the old man's statement was true.

Mifune smirked. "You like them."

The golden-eyed teen scoffed, then turned his back.

"Oi, where are you going, brat?"

Ryoma walked without stopping even once, not bothered to answered the old man's question.

* * *

_Observation room_

"How is that lot doing?"

"That lot? You mean the losers?"

Coach Kurobe and coach Saitoh talked as they were watching all the players from surveillance cameras that were planted throughout the entire place.

"They should be training hard in the mountains right now," coach Saitoh said. "Though, in this day and age, grit, grit, and more grit is such antiquated philosophy."

"Humans are mysterious creatures. Hidden inside us is something immeasurable even with the most cutting edge technology," the wavy dark brown-haired coach, Kurobe, stated.

"I wonder how much of it is psychological," coach Saitoh muttered.

"Figuring that out…"

"...is my job as the mental coach," coach Saitoh said, finishing coach Kurobe's words.

"Then why don't you go do your job?" another voice chirped in.

They both immediately turned towards the voice's source.

Ryoma was standing in front of an opened door and leaning against it, while taking a sip from a grape flavored Ponta.

Coach Saitoh's face brightened at the sight. "Echizen-kun! Why didn't you tell us you were coming? I could have prepared a feast for you."

Ryoma only stared at him with bored eyes.

"You're coming back?" coach Kurobe asked.

"Che, no."

Coach Saitoh looked fairly disappointed. "Haven't you got bored already playing in the mountain?"

"I'm not playing around."

"Sure, sure," Coach Saitoh dismissed him easily.

"Right!" He clasped his hands suddenly. "Why don't you go see the new recruits? We have gathered some potential playmates for you. I'm sure they can keep you entertained."

Ryoma glared at him skeptically. "They're not your toys to play with."

Coach Saitoh smiled smugly, "They are, unless they prove otherwise."

The dark-haired teen scowled. Glaring at the ever easy-going coach for the last time, he strode out of the door.

"Stop teasing him," coach Kurobe remarked, after making sure Ryoma was already out of their sight.

"But he was so adorable when angry," the tallest of the two answered, way too happily. "I can't help it."

Letting out a sigh, Kurobe commented. "I'm starting to think you are the reason why he hated being here."

* * *

"Anyone interesting?"

Irie Kanata walked, approaching Oni and Tokugawa who were observing the winners' team of the middle schoolers. They were currently training under the supervision of Tsuge Ryuuji, one of the coaches who was in charge of physicality training.

Oni didn't even bother to look at Irie. "What do you mean?"

The honey brown, curly-haired man fixed his round shaped glasses, smiled. "Well, those middle schoolers! Is there anyone that interests you?" He swept his sight to the field, checking the players, and then turned his red eyes back to Oni. "I mean, they are going to be your teammates soon."

_Teammates…_

That's right. Those middle schoolers had grown at such terrifying speed that it really is just a matter of time before they reach the court Oni currently dwelled in; court 5.

Though, all the courts below court 5 were nothing to be proud about. They couldn't be compared with the upper courts. The difference in strength between court 5 and above, and the lower court was so painfully obvious, especially the residents of court 1. They're the best out of the best, it was no wonder that they stand on top, particularly the 1st stringers.

"Your turn is coming soon," Irie continued. Propping his elbow on the concrete fence, he smiled in amusement. "To test them and to judge their worth…" he drawled.

"Whether they will pass the trial and join us—," he echoed the words deliberately slow on purpose. "—is your role as _The Gatekeeper from Hell_."

Irie lifted his body up and settled himself to sit on top of the fence, glasses glinted in glee. "Ah, but, I guess we still need our little prince's approval first~"

The dark redhead let the leader of 3rd court speak without responding to him even once. Irie's words reminded him of why he was known as '_**The Gatekeeper from**** Hell**_'in the first place. Rather flashy way of describing someone, but befitting nonetheless.

Tokugawa, apparently, had only been quietly listening to the conversation, devoid of any intention to contributing a thought.

"You talk too much."

The Honey head immediately brimmed in delight once he realized who was butting in their discussion; albeit it was a one-sided one.

"Ryoma-chan!"

Ryoma's eyebrows twitched in annoyance at the nickname. He had asked the bespectacled man to stop calling him with that suffix once, though it was most likely to have been ignored by the older man. Irie claimed that the name was his means to show his affection towards their baby brother, though in Ryoma's defense, he was convinced he did it on purpose to rile the teen up. Irie had a rather whimsical personality and loved to prank people with his seemingly innocent acting. A pretense that more than often had people fooled, especially if it's used in tennis. The honey haired man loved to tease Ryoma the best, because according to him, the teen looked the cutest when he was peeved.

The dark-haired teen gave a brief greeting to Oni and a slight nod to Tokugawa.

Irie hopped down from the fence and walked towards Ryoma. "It's been a while since the last time we saw you," he said, taking Ryoma's hat off then ruffled his hair fondly.

Ryoma slapped Irie's hand away, frowning.

The red eyes man only laughed heartily at Ryoma's somewhat rude behavior. "Alright then, what are you doing here? Curious of your possible future teammates?"

His silence became the answer.

Irie sighed. "Okay, so, it's a no." Seemingly to be lost in thought for a moment, he gave a wide smile —a too suspicious smile in Ryoma's opinion— suddenly, "Oh! Did you miss us, Ryoma-chan?"

The teen rolled his eyes.

"Stop riling him up, Irie," Oni said before Irie made another remark to tease Ryoma again.

"Fine, fine," he lifted both his hands up, a gesture of conceding. "So then, why?"

Giving Irie the cold shoulder, Ryoma walked past him, towards Tokugawa.

"Let's have a match."

The dark blue haired man nodded in consent.

"I see." Irie smiled slyly. "You come to see Tokugawa _only_." Emphasizing on the word '_only_'. His eyes failed to hide his amusement, along with a voice that was shrouded in a teasing tone. "I'm jealous."

Ryoma bore him an impassive look, already used towards the older man's antic.

Irie chuckled. "Okay, okay, I'll stop now." He leaned against the fence. "But, what are you going to do with them?" he asked, flicking his finger in the direction where the middle schoolers were.

Shifting the tennis bag on his shoulder, Ryoma glanced from the fellow middle schoolers to Irie, then Oni. "I'll leave them to you, Oni-san."

The redhead beckoned an affirmative nod.

"I'll trust your judgment," Ryoma added quickly, stopping Irie from speaking again. He, then, put his cap back to crowning his hair and threw Irie one last hard glare. "You should do your job too."

Not waiting for a reply, the teen strode away with Tokugawa following closely from behind.

Irie made a casual shrugged and one submissive smile plastered on his face. "The little prince sure is demanding."

Letting out no reaction, Oni simply returned his attention back to the hard-working middle schoolers. "You reap what you sow".

* * *

"Why should we sleep here?" Momoshiro grumbled as he prepared his sleeping bag.

Inui dragged his sleeping bag, settled himself beside Yanagi, and said, "Because we lost."

After they finished their training, coach Mifune had gathered them all along with the high schoolers, and made them have a match against one another. A match between the middle and the high schoolers, where the losing team will be punished to camp out in the cave. Both teams were separated by the net; the high schoolers occupied the upper side of the court, while the middle schoolers took the bottom. The rules were simple; Anyone who missed had to leave the court and the team that had the most players inside at the end, won. At first, they were really confident of winning, especially since they had already beaten them once back then. The only miscalculation on their part was the court itself. Different from the usual court, the ground was made from soil, pebbles, and rocks. So, when they hit the ball to the ground, it created an irregular bounce. Coupled by the fact that they were totally unused to a terrain like this, and their difficulty in moving caused by the large amount of players gathered together in one spot, rendered them even more in an disadvantage.

The court made it hard to play on, since it was impossible to predict how the ball was going to bounce. They even tried to hit the ball before it landed using volleys, but it proved to be ineffective because the opponent outnumbered them. They finally met their shining moment when the duo data masters stepped in. Using the data they had accumulated, by inputting the court's topography and angle of reflection, Inui and Yanagi were able to predict where the irregular bounce was going to occur. After that, the middle schoolers' team was in the winning flow, but when it seemed like they were going to win and was left with only 3 senior high and 2 middle schoolers, the drunken coach suddenly stopped the match and announced the high schoolers' victory.

Hence, making them lose and left to sleep in the cave as the result.

"But, it's not fair! Not fair at all!" Momoshiro whined. "We should have won if he didn't stop the match!"

"I don't think there's any use in complaining against coach Mifune," Kawamura replied.

"He didn't even listen to us," Zaizen added as he tried to make himself comfortable inside the sleeping bag.

"By the way," Inui adjusted his glasses. "Have any of you seen Echizen?"

That statement immediately drew everyone's attention.

"You're right! I didn't see him at all since this afternoon!" Momoshiro exclaimed loudly.

"I think he didn't return after leaving back then," Yanagi replied.

Oishi cast his sight everywhere in panic. "Could something have happened to him? Maybe he got attacked by wild animal, or fell from the cliff, or—,"

"Calm down, Oishi-senpai," Kaidoh said reassuringly.

"Maybe he went to piss?" Kintarou muttered offhandedly.

"Or maybe he lost his way!" Kenya laughed at his own words.

"It can't be, can it?" Shishido chirped in.

At the same time, Ryoma was seen stepping into the cave —looking as nonchalant as ever much to everyone dismay—, still wearing the same attire and carrying his tennis bag, surprising everyone.

"ECHIZEN!"

Momoshiro quickly stood up and approaching the cap teen. "Yo, where have you been?" he asked while resting his arm on Ryoma's shoulder.

Ryoma simply shrugged Momoshiro's arm off, then walked to the far end of the cave, next to Oishi. "I was lost," he answered while dropping his tennis bag down.

"Seriously?!" Kenya shrieked at the background.

"You're lucky not having to do all those weird training. Very lucky I say." Momoshiro waved his hand eagerly, making an exaggerate exclamation.

The rookie of Shitenhouji, Tooyama Kintarou, was skipping towards Ryoma. "Hey, hey, how is your name written?"

The dark-haired teen stared at him flatly, then started to write his name on the ground using his finger.

"So, that's how it's written," Inui who, since-God-knows-when, crouched next to Ryoma muttered. He quickly wrote down his newfound discovery into his note-book.

Kintarou let out a hum and nod repeatedly at the same time. "Oh! So, your name is Koshimae!"

Golden eyes narrowed at the remark.

"No, no, Kintarou-san. This is read as Echizen," Konjiki Koharu explained, tapping at the kanji 'Echizen'.

Kintarou frowned. "What are you saying? It's Koshimae!"

Konjiki shook his head. "It's Echizen, Kintarou-san. E-Chi-Zen," he spelled it out slowly.

"It's Koshimae!" Kintarou rebuked stubbornly.

Kenya patted on Konjiki's shoulder. "Give it up. Kin-chan is not going to listen."

"May I ask you something, Echizen?" Inui, ignoring the silly conversation happening beside him, asked.

Ryoma only stared at him, giving a silent approval.

"Which schools are you come from?"

"None."

Inui was stunned, and before he was going to asked again, Yanagi –who was now crouching right to Inui—beat him up. "Then, where did you come from?"

Ryoma took a sleeping bag out of his tennis bag. "U.S."

"I see. So, that's why I have no data about you," Inui mumbled as he was writing furiously on his notebook. "That makes sense now. It's because you came from overseas."

"You came here from the U.S. specially to join this selection camp?"

Ryoma was going to say _'not really'_, but that reply might invoke even more questions (which was troublesome) and he didn't feel like explaining (he was tired, mind you. Besides, talking was never one of Ryoma's forte), not to mention it was complicated (or maybe not); so he settled for a simple nod.

Momoshiro patted Ryoma's back, impressed. "Wow! You must be really strong to be specially invited here!"

Inui stroked his chin. "The possibility of Echizen to be really strong is 100%. I really want to see you play in a match."

Kintarou brightened up at the probability to have another strong player, especially one around his age. "Hey, hey, Koshimae! Have a match with me!"

Ignoring the redhead's challenge (and possible future question), Ryoma suddenly stood up. He took a step towards the cave exit.

"Koshimae! Where are you going?"

Not bothering to look back, he simply answered. "Toilet."

They silently watched as Ryoma disappeared from their sight.

It didn't take long for them to notice that their newest addition slash teammate was not a talkative person. Or to be exact, he didn't seem to like talking that much.

"Oh, great. We got another fuku-buchou," Niou muttered. _No offense._

Sanada bore Niou a murderous glare.

* * *

Mifune Nyūdo hummed lightly as he refilled his gourd with the liquor bottle he retrieved from the refrigerator. He took a few gulps from it then burped loudly afterwards. Beside the now empty bottle, a can of a carbonated drink was placed on top of the table.

He put his gourd on the wooden table, then picked the can –labeled grape Ponta—up. He walked towards the other wooden chair, which was being resided by the emerald haired teen.

He shoved the can to the teen roughly, then strode back to his chair.

Ryoma —obviously didn't go to the toilet— opened the can and took a sip, letting a content smile emerged on his face. Emerald haired fluttered softly as he bent his body down slightly, moving the white cap that was resting on his lap to the table.

"So, what do you think of them?" the bearded old man spoke, trying to start a conversation.

Having Ryoma go silent on him again, he continued in a more oppressive tone, "You'll answer me this time, brat."

As though Ponta was the most interesting thing to look at (maybe it really was, in Ryoma's case), he eyed the can intensely.

He did hear what the old man in front of him said. No, he wasn't ignoring him –not this time at least—, he was just searching for the best way to described his answer, and while he did, Ryoma recalled the event that occurred back then. The time when coach Mifune purposely dropped baskets of tennis balls off the cliff.

_When they were half-way through the mountain, stamina and energy had obviously been drained out of them. They were painting heavily and color was swept out of their faces._

_Not a few of them started to question what the hell they were doing._

"_Don't lose focus, Shishido!" Mukahi shouted, when he saw Shishido lose the grip on his foot and slipped down._

"_I know!" Shishido replied in retaliation. "I know, but… damn it! how did this happen?"_

"_Shishido…"_

"_We're being tested, aren't we? Damn it! I bet they're watching us from somewhere and laughing!"_

_That statement made the looks on their faces darken. The painful truth they had to accept. A lot of their vigor had already vanished and it was really questionable of how much was still left._

"_Is this it?" a voice calmly broke them from their self-pity. "Is this your limit?"_

_Golden eyes shone oddly bright, even though the light had been stolen from them when the cloudy sky emanated and veiled the sun. It felt like a silent challenge was being thrown from them._

_Sanada, who's position was the closest to Ryoma, watched as the teen returned his focus back at the task of climbing the mountain without expecting an answer._

"_Do you know?!" Sanada shouted at Ryoma, sounded somewhat desperate._

_Ryoma stopped on his track and glanced back at Sanada._

"_What's up there? What's waiting for us?"_

"_Who knows?" the teen turned his head back and looked upwards to the peak. "The only thing that's certain is that climbing to the top will make us stronger."_

"_The top?"_

_Ryoma settled his eyes back to Sanada's brown ones. "You all want to become stronger, right?"_

_That simple statement startled them all up. It had reminded them the reason why they're doing this and why they were here in the first place._

_As they climbed till about a quarter-way before reaching the peak, ridiculous amounts of yellow balls rained down towards them. When the balls made a contact with the cliff, it successfully caused not a few of slopes to crumble against the impact._

_It had become very dangerous as the slopes collapsed one by one._

"_Uwaaaa! This is bad!" Tanishi Kei screamed as he clung desperately on the stones for his life._

"_What the hell was this?!"_

_Sanada gritted his teeth in anger as he watched the balls fell._

"_Momoshiro, are you okay?" Kaidoh asked worriedly._

"_Instead of me, you should worry about yourself," the Seigaku's trickster replied hastily. Obviously the burden on Kaidoh was much worse than anyone else, since he wasn't just carrying his tennis bag but Momoshiro too._

"_Don't be kidding with me!" Shishido shouted, filled in rage. "How much more do you have to mock us before satisfied, you bastards?!"_

_A few pebbles fell directly on Kaidoh and collided with his head, making him to lose his balance. He fell a few meters downwards, which also resulted in Momoshiro to accidentally loosen his grip on Kaidoh._

"_Momoshiro!"_

_Panic engulfed them; they watched in horror as Momoshiro steadily fell._

_Sanada caught him by hand. "Don't let go, Momoshiro!"_

"_Sanada-san…"_

"_Listen up, guys! Right now at the top of this cliff, undoubtedly, he's there! Someone who is mocking us that lost!"_

_At Sanada's words, as more balls rained down, they all began to help each other out._

"_This is our new battle," Rikkaidai's Emperor continued. "We'll stare back at those who mock us and beat the arrogance out of them! Don't back down! Don't be afraid! Don't look back!"_

_They all nodded in approval._

"_There's only one thing we must do now!"_

_More and more balls were coming down._

"_Listen up! Leave no one behind! We'll all rise up together!"_

_Those words managed to ignite the fighting spirit inside all of them. The look in their eyes changed. They were now flickered with determination and fervor. They're not going to lose. They're not going to let whoever standing on top of this cliff to win. They will show them; Show them what they're made of. Rejuvenated, they roared in unity, turning their new-found will into strength as they climbed up the mountain._

_Small smile formed on the dark, emerald haired teen's face as he saw the change in his possible future teammates._

Back from his flashback, Ryoma's golden eyes gleamed in excitement. Moving the Ponta away from his lips, he smirked in delight. "They aren't bad."

* * *

_"**Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."**_

_**- [Mahatma Gandhi] -**_

* * *

I'm digging my own grave. Why must I made my chapter longer and longer the more I write? Hopefully you guys don't mind long chapter. *crossing my finger*

**For all of you who haven't watch/read new prince of tennis, just FYI, Tokugawa Kazuya, Oni Juujirou, Irie Kanata, Mifune Nyudo, Saitoh, Kurobe, Tsuge, Sasabe really are the new original casts from Shin Tenipuri. I didn't create them up, okay! They're not my OC.**

Right, if I don't update for a long time, you guys might need to bug me into updating, because I have a tendency to get lazy and forget things pretty easily.

Feedback are loved and welcomed~ Thank you :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Pairing: **Hints of many/Ryoma.

**Warning:** swearing. Overusing some words (most likely). Boring chapter (maybe).

_**Italic is flashback.**_

**This chapter is not beta'ed and not proofread, so beware of grammar mistakes and spelling error.**

**A/N:**_** Please read the author note at the end of the chapter.**_

* * *

**The Prince's Regime**

**~Rikka~**

**~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~**

_Chapter Three_

_- Those who faced the trials -_

**~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~**

Ryoma was seen walking through the forest. It was already late at night, leaving only the rustle of leaves singing melodiously and chilly wind. He was on his way to return to the cave after having spent his time in Mifune's place.

Sipping the Ponta in his hand, he suddenly stopped on his track.

Sounds of footsteps were heard from the teen's behind. "Good to see you again, prince."

Ryoma cast his sight toward the voice's source briefly, giving an acknowledgement glance but still not bothered answering.

"I have a message for you."

* * *

"Morning tea time is really the best…" strays of silvery grey hair swayed slowly, framing the side of his face as Atobe Keigo inhaled the aroma from his freshly brewed tea. "Did you peasants have nice dreams?"

Half of the middle schoolers winners' team were sitting leisurely in the cafeteria, savoring their breakfast.

"This place really is the best environment for tennis training. With all its advance technology just for coaching us, " Yukimura Seichi, the captain of Rikkaidai said to the lucky teen from Yamabuki.

Sengoku sip his tea. "Even if you're only here for one day, you can see the rapid improvement. Your mental prowess, technique, and even your physical strength, everything gets better."

"Anyhow, if everyone wins in their shuffle matches today, except for that gate-keeper guy, the 5th court will become entirely made up of middle schoolers."

* * *

"Game won by Shiraishi! 6-0!"

"Game won by Tachibana, 6-0!"

"Those God damn middle school bastards! Isn't there anyone who can stop their momentum!?" shouted by one of the high schooler spectator as they watched in frustration how their teammates lost one by one against the middle schoolers.

Today was the shuffle matches between the 6th court middle schoolers against the 5th court high schoolers. If they won all of their matches, then the 5th court would make up entirely of middle schoolers, leaving only Oni Juujirou as the sole high schooler.

"Did they advance past all of their high school opponents!?" disbelief was painted on their face.

"But… as long as Oni senpai is there, he won't let them have it their way!" One of the loser high schooler said, accompanied by the nodding approvals as though to cheer themselves up, unable to comprehended the fact that they had just lose against the younger brats they had originally underestimated at.

From distance, watching the matches with interest was a tan high schooler with unruly white hair, Tanegashima Shuuji, one of the 1st court residences, as well as the U-17 representative candidate first stringers.

"Those guys still haven't even shown half of their real abilities yet. I wonder how many more will make it…" Tanegashima glanced at his companion. "What do you think, Tokugawa?"

Standing behind the 3rd year senior was the ever stoic dark blue haired man, Tokugawa Kazuya. "You look like you're having fun, Tanegashima-san."

"Really?" He chuckled. Shifting his body to a more comfortable sitting position, Tanegashima crossed his leg. "Even if you say that, from here on out, even going up one court number is going up a completely different level of strength."

An amuse smirk forming on his face. "Isn't that what the rarely used shuffle is for?" the white-haired man raised his hand then pointed his finger toward one specific group on the court. "Look there."

Irie Kanata and the rest of the 3rd court residences were seen standing on the court. They had just finished their shuffle team matches against the 4th court. They shook hand with their 4th court opponents then stepped out of the court, completely unexhausted, leaving the totally annihilated 4th court players behind.

"3rd court is just too strong. As usual, 4th court got shut down completely," Tanegashima continued. "The team shuffle between 3rd court and 4th court. Just like that, you can really see the difference in their strengths."

All the matches were won by score 6-0. The 4th court was completely defeated.

Tanegashima wandered his sight to the middle schoolers who were standing on the side line, watching the matches in awe.

"This is the team shuffle…" Akaya Kirihara muttered as he gulped down his excitement after watching 3rd court prowess.

"Ahn, a team shuffle?" Atobe and few of the middle schoolers stopped right in front of irie's team's walking track.

"So, if we used that thing, we'll be able to take on the upper courts then, right?" Atobe stated in his usual arrogant tone, making an eye contact with Irie.

Irie glanced at Atobe and gave him his usual carefree smile. "This court is still out of your league."

"You'll first need to defeat Oni, if you want to have one," he continued with a friendly smile, but Atobe could clearly felt a hidden venom challenge directed at him inside the seemingly innocent advice.

Giving one last taunting smile, Irie and the other 3rd court members then strode past them, leaving the middle schoolers to shiver with excitement, especially Atobe, toward their upcoming challenge.

Tanegashima laughed as he watched the exchange between the middle schoolers and the 3rd court.

"That kid sure has gut!" He commented while trying to stifle his laughter down. "Challenging Irie head on like that—," he wiped droplets of tear from his lilac eyes. "It's been a while since something like this has happened."

After a long ten minutes, the white-haired man finally calmed himself down. Reminiscing, his eyes softened at one specific old memory. "This reminded me of when he first came here."

It's not hard to guess who Tanegashima was talking about. There were an awfully lot of people in this training camp, but only few stood out among the crowds, especially the one Tanegashima anonymously mentioned. After all, that one was an enigma. "He is different."

"You bet he is," the senior replied immediately. "No one is like him."

Resting his palm on the bench, the 3rd year senior stared at the sky absent-mindedly. "These middle schoolers are good, but they still can't be compared with him," Tanegashima said fondly. "He was younger than them when he first came here. He was still the youngest even now, and yet his skill is one of the best among best."

Tanegashima recalled the day when one dark emerald haired teen suddenly appeared in front of them, out of nowhere. "The kid really got some attitude—," he trailed.

'Some attitude' was an understatement. The kid was amazingly talented at getting under people's skin, even when he was doing nothing. But well, he easily grew on people too.

His being was just hard to be ignored _and resist._ The attraction was simply there.

And Tanegashima Shuuji was no exception.

…_as well as some other people he knew_.

'_At least, it's not just me.' _he thought bashfully.

Continuing his sentence, Tanegashima chuckled, "—but at least it was backed up with real skill." _A real deal one, no kidding._ "No wonder he was named prince."

Tokugawa remember the first time Echizen Ryoma came to the camp. He was like a storm. Stood strong among all the high schooler, without any hint of fear, he challenged them and had taken them all totally by surprise.

"I wonder if the same thing will happen again. I mean, both them and the prince are middle schooler, and—"

Tokugawa's eyes narrowed at the unfinished statement and quickly cut it off before ever being completed. With a final tone, he spoke, giving no argument left, "Echizen is an exception."

For the people who knew the teen, Echizen Ryoma indeed was an anomaly.

The senior nodded approvingly. It was not _unfounded_ after all.

"He sure is." Tanegashima's voice was laced with bare fascination.

"Just a mere twelve years old kid…" the white-haired man smiled softly. "… and yet, his strength is already on a completely different level."

The very first day Ryoma arrived to this selection camp and having watched him played in a match, Tanegashima couldn't deny that he had been charmed by the teen's frightening inborn talent. And he was sure as hell, he wasn't the only one.

"He came here out of a sudden, and just like a storm, he blew through the courts and trashed all of his opponents in utter defeat…" Tanegashima drawled, once again being reminded of Ryoma's strength. "… in just one day."

* * *

_Observation Room._

"What are you going to do?" coach Kurobe asked as he watched the exchange from the surveillance camera.

"Will you open the gate? Or will you not?" Kurobe trailed as he glanced back toward the dark redhead who was standing behind him. "Which will it be?"

Eyeing the silent man, he continued, " …Oni Juujirou."

* * *

Mifune Nyudo dropped down a basket full of rackets to the ground, creating confusion among the middle schoolers. After having them ran for 3 hours long, Mifune had then gathered them together on the court.

"What are these?" Momoshiro asked the question he believed everyone else was also having.

"Muscle strengthening rackets."

"Muscle strengthening rackets?"

Mifune took one of the rackets out of its box. "Everyone grabs a racket," he ordered, then threw the racket in his hand toward Momoshiro.

The Seigaku sophomore caught the racket by reflex. But, the moment the racket rest in his palm, he had been immediately brought down to the ground by the weight of that racket itself.

They all realized at that exact moment that those rackets really was no ordinary racket, especially when it was able to outweighed Momoshiro who was noticeably a power player.

Momoshiro dropped a sweat. "Wh—what's with this thing?"

The other who had also grabbed the racket thought of the same thing. The palms that was holding the racket was trembling immensely at the heaviness. It took all of their power to keep the racket in balance without dropping them.

Sweats were dripping down their bodies, soaking their plain white t-shirt, even though they had only begun carrying the racket not more than 5 minutes.

"It's as heavy as a rock!"

Mifune laughed contentedly at their reaction. "Those rackets frames are filled with lead. Takes a lot to just stand while holding one, doesn't it?"

Satisfied at the obvious struggle displayed in front of him, Mifune clapped both of his hand hard.

"Alright, brats! I'll give you fucking 2 minutes to get used to those rackets before I start the training!" he barked an order.

He watched as the middle schoolers struggled to lifted the rackets up, formulating a lot of plans to _train_ them. So engrossed in his own thought, he was unaware of the steady footstep that was approaching him.

"Hey."

The coach –who was unusually sober right now—travelled his gaze toward Ryoma who was now standing in front of him.

He observed how Ryoma carried the racket with easy, without breaking a sweat at all. By now, the brat could carry out any of his training easily without putting much effort –if there was any— at all.

"What is it, brat?"

Resting his golden orbs on the old man's, Ryoma kept his mouth shut for a second, before uttered, "I have a request."

* * *

"Come on, come on! Hurry up move and get those balls!" Mifune shouted as he smack another serve.

All the middle schoolers were gathered together on one side of the court, while their coach occupied the other. They were having a one side match; as in they need to return all the balls Mifune hit them, and of course, by using that heavy racket.

Albeit, speaking was a lot easier to do than to actually did the act.

The middle schoolers were unable to return the ball. They had already got their hands full having to chase after the ball while carrying as-heavy-as-rock racket. The weight had obviously taken its toll on their bodies and successfully rendered their ability to move to almost nonexistence. They were totally and miserably helpless, that it made one terribly pitiful scene to watch.

"Even if you say that… with these heavy rackets…" Momoshiro mumbled bitterly.

"We can barely move," Mukahi wryly complained as he held the racket tightly, keeping it from fell down as his hand trembled greatly against the weight.

Ignoring their suffering, Mifune mercilessly hit another powerful serve.

Among the currently alive statues on the court, there was one individual who was able to move around the court fluidly, and unexpectedly capable in returning each of Mifune's serve.

"Echizen…"

They all watched in awe as Ryoma running around the court in agility and hit an equally powerful return smash, seemingly with easy, as if the racket was weight almost to nothing.

Different from them, Ryoma hadn't broken any sweat at all. His movement was fast and agile; his reaction toward the entire smash from coach Mifune was really quick that before realizing he was already in front of the ball. It goes the same with the return hit. Each of the balls was hit with the same powerful force as their coach gave. There was no wasted move.

It had become like a one on one match between coach Mifune and Ryoma, leaving the rest of them to observed the match in amazement. They seemed to forget that it was training for all of them and that they were required to do the same with what Ryoma did.

"What are you fucking trash doing!? You all got to get the balls too!" Mifune shouted, scolding them for just quietly standing there and doing absolutely nothing at all (except for withholding the racket's heaviness).

"We do want to move, but…" Zaizen muttered mostly to himself.

It turned out that Ryoma had also stopped moving and now instead watching them struggling with the racket.

"Focus."

All the middle schoolers turned their heads toward the sudden voice's source, which is Ryoma.

Ryoma kept his stare level on all of them. "Just change your focus," he advised.

Dumbstruck expression on all of their faces indicated that they didn't understand what Ryoma was saying.

Letting out a sigh, Ryoma raised his racket and continued, "Instead of focusing on your hand, it'll be better to channel the weight to your feet too."

"Like this." The dark-haired teen made a stance. He bent his body down slightly, gripped his racket with adjusted force, then divided both his feet approximately 30cm between each other and planted them firmly on the ground. "Not focusing the weight on your hands only, but channel them to your feet and let them support the weight."

Ryoma's eyes narrowed as they spotted a ball flying toward him. "—once both are balanced, move!" he said as he ran to intercept the ball.

He glanced back to them after he finished returning the ball. His raised one of his eyebrows up, as though asking whether they understood or not.

_Maybe not, judging from their dumb expression._

"I see!" Inui shouted suddenly, caught them by surprise.

"By changing the center of the gravity to the feet, we can reduce the weight of this racket against our hands and instead transferred it to our feet," he stated, then making a stance just like Ryoma did moments ago, while mumbling something like '30cm', '45% angle', '30% power', etc. Inui then moved unexpectedly fluid, compared to how he was before, and managed to return the ball, even though he was still swaying a bit at the impact.

"It's just like martial arts." Yanagi muttered as he stared at the racket.

"What do you mean, Yanagi?" Sanada asked.

"Like judo, when we are up against stronger and heavier opponent than us, the chance to throw over the opponent lies not in the power of the hand but feet. By channeling the center of our whole body's weight to the feet, we'll receive an even greater power in return." Yanagi looked at Sanada. "It's the same with kendo, Genichirou."

At the explanation, both Yanagi and Sanada tried to put the theory into action and finally able to returned the ball successfully.

The rest of the middle schoolers also tried to do the same, and immediately roared into happiness when their racket finally able to make a contact –or maybe just a brush— against the ball.

Ryoma was silently watching them running back and forth chasing after the ball. He didn't realize as the tip of his mouth unconsciously tugged upward slightly, forming a small smile.

At the distance, Mifune Nyudo smirked fondly as he noticed the expression Ryoma was having, and then whispered a little too gently, "Brat."

* * *

"Why should we do this?" Oshitari Kenya complained as he swept his sight toward all the security –that was standing on guard— few meters ahead of him.

"Coach's order," Higa's teen, Tanishi Kei mumbled, crouching exactly next to Kenya.

Oshitari Kenya, Tanishi Kei and Echizen Ryoma were now hiding behind a bush inside the U-17 training camp. The reason why they were here, when they're supposed to be sleeping right now, instead of snooping around in this late at night was because of their one and only coach, Mifune Nyudo's order.

Moments ago, all the middle schoolers were sleeping soundly inside their sleeping bag, obviously had been exhausted by the muscle strengthening training. They should had been peacefully sleeping if their coach didn't just woke them up in the middle of the night, demanded them to do night training.

And so, reluctantly, they all dragged their bodies to do exactly as ordered, except for them three. When Kenya and Tanishi prepared themselves to go out and train, Mifune called them out along with Ryoma –who was still leisurely staying behind—to undergo another mission: a so-called _special mission_ as he said.

They were asked to go deep into the cave they slept in without any explanation at all. Once they were half-way through the cave, they found a letter resting on top of a stone. The letter had summarized what the mission they were supposed to do: _first, mission one, they will sneak into the camp and acquire the following items from the practice storage shed: 100 new tennis balls, 50 bars of soap, and 10 bottles of both shampoo and conditioner. Afterwards, they need to go to the staff bar lounge in the dorms and acquire high quality sake and to make acquiring sake as this special mission top priority over the balls or soaps._

As ridiculous as this special mission sounds, they had no choice but to complied with the order. After experiencing a lot of hard works and obstacles –including one where they had to run away from bats or the one where Kenya and Tanishi idiotically fell into the river— they had, maybe by the sheer of luck, made it to where the U-17 training camp was held.

"Really that coach, how can he ask us to do something like this?" Kenya grumbled, then turned his head facing Ryoma. "Right, Echizen?"

The dark-haired teen who was crouching behind him wandered his eyes towards Kenya. "Err, who?"

"Kenya! Oshitari Kenya," he quickly said, face-palmed. "Oh right! We still haven't introducing ourself properly, have we? I'm Oshitari Kenya. But just call me Kenya, not Oshitari, okay! I have a cousin with the same family name here. Don't wanna be mistaken."

"I'm from Higa middle school, Tanishi Kei," Tanishi quickly but in. "From Okinawa."

Ryoma stared at them blankly then nodded before returning his attention back toward the obstacle in front of them, leaving Kenya and Tanishi to do the same.

Well, their newest addition was not much of a talker.

"Has the security always been this tight?" Kenya muttered in disbelief, as he observed how all the security had carried alongside them a pack of Dobermans, absolutely not-your-common-house dog.

Paying no notice toward the still in-dazed duo, Ryoma swiftly ran along the bush to the side.

"Oi, Echizen! Where are you going? Those are Dobermans, you know!" Kenya remarked, freaking out at the horror of having a doberman as opponent.

Ryoma glanced back at Kenya and smirked playfully. "Then we'd better not get caught."

* * *

After their somehow successful attempt at completing the first mission, they are now on their tracks to do the second mission, also called as special mission. They had already collected the balls, shampoo and soaps and all that left was sake.

Right now, they had arrived at the dorms and were currently heading towards the staff bar lounge. They hadn't gone any further and were forcefully stopped before even founding the lounge, because of the unexpected surveillance cameras that were placed along the hallway.

"That's gonna be a problem."

"It's impossible to get through without being seen by the cameras. If only there was a box of space the camera couldn't see," Tanishi muttered.

"There's no way we'll find one," Kenya piped in.

"There is," Ryoma who was silent until now suddenly said. He, then, pointed his finger toward the floor. "Box."

It wasn't literally a box, but there were some oddly shaped pictures drawn on the floor. The shapes were square, triangle and round.

"What do you mean?"

Ryoma casually moved toward the drawn floor then stepped right into the square-shaped drawing.

His act immediately made Kenya and Tanishi into a state of panic.

"Oi, Echizen! What are you doing!?"

"It's alright," Ryoma nonchalantly said while jumping from one square to the other. "These squares seem to be those cameras' only blind spots."

Seeing no harm fell upon Ryoma, the duo quickly moved following Ryoma's example. After 5 minutes of jumping around, they had successfully arrived to the other side of the hallway, avoiding any of the cameras' surveillance. Much to their relief.

In front of them, stood a door made of steel with a lock that used codes.

"How to—," before Kenya managed to finished saying his question, Ryoma beat him to it.

"259113."

"What—?" Kenya was dumbfounded.

"The codes," Ryoma simply answered.

"Not that! I mean, how did you know what the codes were?"

Ryoma just casually glanced to the painting that was hanging beside him. In one look, the painting seemed to be just mindless scribbles, but if you looked carefully, you could spot few numbers that were cleverly hidden within the scribbles.

"It was hidden there. The codes," he answered.

Kenya nodded absentmindedly. "I see," he muttered as he started pressing the numbers Ryoma told him into the lock.

The door opened.

They quickly ran inside and finally arrived exactly a few meters before the bar lounge.

"Let's grab some sake and get out of here," Kenya said happily, and then ran toward the lounge, followed closely by Tanishi.

"Wait, Kenya-san, Tanishi-san."

As soon as Ryoma called out to them, out of a sudden, red lasers forming before them –seemingly coming out of nowhere—, creating disorderly lines along the path to the lounge.

"You shouldn't touch that," Ryoma added.

They stared at the red lines for a good one minute. Shrugging, Kenya then decided to storm passed the lines. He had only managed to go through few steps before being forced to step back again.

"No, no! It's impossible. No matter how flexible you are, you can't get through this!" Naniwa's speed star shouted (in an adjusted volume) as soon as he was landed on the floor, flat-butt.

"This is sucks," Tanishi grumbled.

"What should we do? Or more importantly, why do we have to do this?" Kenya complained as he tried to stand up.

Ryoma leaned his back against the wall. Putting both of his hands inside the jacket's pocket he was wearing, his mind traveled back to the time he made a so-called request toward the old man.

"_I have a request."_

_Mifune gave the teen an analyzing gaze. "What now? You are pretty demanding lately, aren't you, brat?"_

_Ignoring the beard old man's remark, Ryoma continued. "Create me a chance to go to the camp."_

_Mifune snorted. "You always go there whenever you want anyway. Why need an excuse now?"_

_The dark emerald haired teen rolled his eyes. "I can't just disappear from the training," he stated. 'not all the time at least', he mused._

_Taking one of the rackets out of its box, Mifune asked, "For what?"_

"_There's something I want to see."_

_Silently staring at Ryoma for a few seconds –as though contemplating a thought—, Mifune, then threw the racket in his hand toward the teen, which Ryoma caught with easy. "Fine! Tonight then!"_

_And leaving Ryoma to smirk satisfied._

Back from his flashback, Ryoma mulled in silence.

'…_Well, it would be because of me.'_

Hopped out from leaning against the wall, Ryoma turned his back then walked toward the exit.

Realizing that Ryoma had started to walked back to where they had originally coming from, Kenya quickly called out to him, "Echizen! Where are you going?" he hissed.

Glancing at Kenya briefly, he simply said, "Searching for a way out."

* * *

The middle schoolers' winners' team were seen walking out of their dorm. It was late at night and they were supposed to be sleeping right now. Though they apparently not. The only reason why they were now making their way to the tennis court was because of one argument they had earlier.

After a long horrendous training, they were dropped dead caused by exhaustion. They all then took a bath at the hot spring to relieve the soreness out of their bodies along with the strain muscles. After a long nice bath – though there were a few silly mishaps— they were able to regain a bit of their energy. Returning to the dining room, they found all kind of foods displayed neatly on the tables. In famished, they gulped down all the foods in a matter of hour. All in all, they were enjoying themselves with all those finest treatments –including a few silly mishaps that occurred again— until Kikumaru voiced out his disappointment. He was missing his teammates and friends who were dropped out of this training camp, and especially Oishi. He missed his double partner badly and found himself sadden by the thought of unable to shared this wonderful time with him.

Ohtori also voiced the same opinion and feeling as Kikumaru. So used to had Shishido yelling at him most of the time (if not always), he felt the loneliness left by the said senior.

Their sad thought was abruptly stopped by Atobe's words. He bluntly said that if they were going to just regretted things in the first place, they shouldn't have come. His harsh words angered both Kikumaru and Ohtori to the point of challenging him in a match, a tennis table match. Atobe's team was joined by Mizuki, who had somehow insulted Oishi (for calling him an egg) that made Kikumaru angry, then Kite –who had a dispute with Akutsu— and Marui, who was simply did that for amusement. Kikumaru's team were Kikumaru, Ohtori, Akutsu, and Chitose. The latter joined for a little exercise only.

The first match was won by Marui. Neither won the second match, because both Akutsu and Kite was too rough that they ended up playing more than just tennis table –they had almost made casualty—, so they ended in a draw. Third match was won by Kikumaru, despite of Mizuki's dirty method. And as for the last match, the score was so tight between two competitors. But, at the match point, Ohtori asked if he really didn't care about his teammates and especially kabaji, which Atobe coldly replied he didn't. and yet, when Ohtori yelled out Kabaji's name out of a sudden, acting like kabaji was there, Atobe found himself concerned enough that he turned around that make him lose his last point.

Atobe grumbled –not that obvious though—for falling at such cheap trick. Ohtori, in the other hand, was delighted to have found that Atobe _did_ care about them, seeing his reaction toward kabaji. His victory over Atobe had made them the winner team. They had an agreement that the one who won the match, get to order the loser one time. Having reconciled with each other, they asked for a tennis match.

Hence why they were heading there right now.

As they walked into the tennis court, they could faintly hear the sound of ball being hit. It rhyme in constant and was hit with just enough force.

"Who…" Kikumaru muttered.

They traveled their sight around the court and found someone sitting on the low concrete fence that separating the court from the spectator place.

Ignoring the presences that were slowly approaching him, the dark emerald haired teen continued his steady hitting pace.

As they closed their distance against the teen, they finally able to make a rough outline out of the intruder.

Wearing a knee-length black pant and orange-colored t-shirt, completed with a black sport jacket with a hood covering his hair, was a teen that clearly none of them had known.

Seeing as the teen still didn't bother to acknowledge their beings, Atobe who was quite annoyed having someone who _dared_ (because no one _ever_ allowed to ignore ore-sama) to ignored the mighty him, chose to speak up.

"Who are you?"

The dark emerald haired teen hit the ball one last time, before it bounce back at him, letting itself to be captured by the teen's left palm. Shoving the tennis ball inside his pocket, the teen put down his racket beside him, on top of the fence.

As he turned his head toward the group standing before him, a chilly wind softly breeze through the teen's hood, letting the hood to descend slowly off of his hair, revealing a black hair with emerald tinge that caress the side of the teen's face gently.

Having able to fully looked at the teen –now that the hood was off—, they rest their gaze into the teen ones only to found themselves captivated by Ryoma's mesmerizing golden eyes.

.

.

[flashback]

"_I have a message for you."_

_A figure appeared from the darkness, presented a man who was wearing U-17 uniform. He had a messy long orange-colored hair that was tied into a ponytail, a piercing on his ear, slanted eye-shaped, complete with a goofy smile._

"_Yamato-san," Ryoma greet the man in front of him._

"_I'm glad you still remember me," Yamato Yuudai grinned happily. With both hands inside his pocket pant, he walked approaching Ryoma._

_One of the U-17 representative candidates, a member of the court Irie currently lead: 3__rd__ court, also known as Seigaku former captain or the legendary charisma captain, Yamato Yuudai._

_Eyeing Ryoma thoroughly, Yamato cheerily said, "You look well, prince."_

"_Why wouldn't I?" Ryoma replied curtly, then added with annoyance, "Stop with that stupid nickname."_

_Yamato laughed at the teen's words. "You haven't change at all, still as unsociable as ever." The older man took Ryoma's cap off then ruffled it affectionately. "That's a relief."_

_Ryoma scowled but didn't remove Yamato's hand off of his hair._

"_Well, you should come see us from time to time. Everyone miss you."_

_The dark-haired teen didn't offer any reply, but the look on his face showed that he was contemplating the suggestion._

_Yamato smiled softly as he gazed at Ryoma. The teen might not sociable but it didn't mean he was indifferent. On the contrary, he did care in his own (cheeky) way that it made him even more adorable. Yamato knew better than to said it out loud though (Ryoma hated it when people as much as to compliment him in that way)._

_Yamato chuckled. Ryoma reminded him of his former junior. His stoic protégé; the one who succeed him in becoming Seigaku captain and pillar._

"_So, what is it?"_

_Ryoma's voice snapped him out of his daydreaming. "Yes?"_

"_You didn't come just to say that, did you?"_

"_No, I didn't." Placing the hat back to Ryoma's head, the goofy smile disappeared from his face._

"_I come to bring you a message from Oni-san." Yamato's tone turned serious and his grey eyes which were settled on Ryoma's vanished of all its early playfulness._

"_The gatekeeper of hell is going to open his gate."_

_._

_._

* * *

**OMAKE**** (why there is Ponta here)**

"Morning tea time is really the best…" strays of silvery grey hair swayed slowly, framing the side of his face as Atobe Keigo inhaled the aroma from his freshly brewed tea. "Did you peasants have nice dreams?"

"I sure had a really pleasant dream," Akutagawa Jirou answered lazily as he sat down next to Atobe. "I still feel like sleeping even now."

"That's nothing new, Jirou," Atobe commented curtly before his eyes widened slightly when he saw the thing Jirou carried in his hand. "Do tell me what is that peasant drink doing here?"

Jirou sipped the drink in his hand. "It's grape Ponta, Atobe," Jirou replied as he shoved the carbonated drink right in front of Atobe's face. "Dunno... I found this in the bar lounge. There are even dozens boxes of them."

Atobe made a disgusted expression as he swayed Jirou's hand away from his face. He raised one of his eyebrows, "Here is supposed to have the best facilities and all." He then glared hard at the Ponta in Jirou's hand as if it had offended him. "So, what is such unhealthy drink doing here!?"

.

[outside]

Coach Tsuge walked in a steady pace as he made his way into the lounge bar. He carried two stacks of boxes in his hands.

"You are stocking them again," coach Kurobe stated when he passed Tsuge on his way to the observation room.

Tsuge gave him an affirmative nod.

Kurobe sighed. "We shouldn't even have them here in the first place. That drink is unhealthy for athletes. You are spoiling him too much."

Instead of answering the black-haired coach, Tsuge only gave him a sheepish smile and gave the boxes in his hands a quick glance to read the label written in it: 'GRAPE FLAVORED PONTA'.

.

Somewhere in the middle of the forest, one dark emerald haired teen sneezed. He rubbed his nose and frowned. _'Cold?'_

* * *

**to be continued...**

* * *

**[Next Chapter preview]**

Ryoma hopped down from the concrete fence he was sitting on. He walked approaching Shiraishi, then stop right in front of him. He stared at Shiraishi's bandage hands, leaving the captain of Shitenhouji to looked back at the teen in confusion. after a long few minutes, Ryoma took one of Shiraishi's hands then gave them one appraisal look. Shiraishi was startled as the stranger teen suddenly grabbed his hand inside his much smaller ones and found himself lost, not knowing what to do.

He settled on observing the teen who was now looking absorbed in scrutinizing his bandaged hands. He didn't know who the teen was and he should had been cautious toward the teen's identity, yet he simply couldn't. It was strange and absurd, but he felt it hard to avert his gaze away from the teen. It was as if he was unconsciously being drawn, as if there was a magnet that pulled him toward the unknown teen.

And when the teen suddenly lifted his head up and rested his eyes on Shiraishi's, the golden gleam on the teen's orb rendered him enchanted. Feeling like he was put under a spell, Shiraishi couldn't look away.

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**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait and sorry for not replying to any of the reviews. I just have been busy with study and life and they got it toll on me. Thank you for all the reviews, favs and follows you guys gave me. I really can't thank you enough for all of your support.

I fell into depression. I met a mishap that was BIG enough to made me feel depressed and stress out, and to be honest, I have lost all of my motivation to do anything at all. But, I have promised Loocoforcoco-123 an update and I had re-read all of your reviews, and yes, knowing how much you all enjoyed reading my story make me feel a bit better. So, I tried to bring myself together to give you this update.

I can't promise you any update soon. I just don't know when will I updated again... maybe when I have cheer up? I honestly don't know, though I can assure you that I won't ever abandoned any of my story.

Thank you for reading this and giving your supports. I'm sorry for any of grammatical mistakes and spelling errors that I might have made. Please tell me if you found them. Also, anyone willing to be this story's beta?

Last, I hope I'll be able to meet you all again soon enough. Until then :)


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